Dr Bindu John Pulparambil and Dr Ganesh discuss about common allergies and its homeopathic treatment in this edition of ‘Doctor’s Talk.

Duration : 0:5:45

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There are more then ten million Americans who have an allergy to pollen alone, this is about one in every five people in the United States. Suffers of allergies have a disorder of their immune system and that is what causes the symptoms. There are many people that are super sensitive to dust, pollen, nuts, and bees these are allergies that could be life threatening if it turn into an anaphylactic reaction and not treated right away.

There are less allergens that are found in the air of hotter dryer climates, and in humid and cooler climates there are considerably more allergens. In the spring and early summer is another time that there are a lot of allergens in the air this is because the plants and the trees are budding and this helps out the pollen.

Antihistamines, decongestants, and also nasal spray are medical treatments that help ward off some of the uncomfortableness of allergies. But any expert in the allergy field will say that the best way to treat the allergy is to stay away form it. Inside of your home you should look into using an air cleaner that has a HEPA filter.

HEPA filters eliminate almost all dust, and pollen from the air. Anybody who is allergic to smoke an activated carbon filter works great. Ask anybody you know with an allergy how many different symptoms that they have, they will have a long list. There are some new products that are now available to help with the allergy problem.

More and more people in the United States are being tested for allergies and the out come reveals that more then fifty five percent are allergic to at least one allergen. So with this said if you are a suffer to seem that you will at least be able to find somebody that is ready to talk about the problem you both suffer from.

Learn more about stuttering causes. Stop by Dr. Ralph Winston’s site where you can find out all about stuttering problem and what it can do for you.

its for a college assignment but i’d like some insight from someone who actually had asthma or is close to someone with it. Thanks!
water table?

More evidence based that patient info but this link might help

The video below was put out by Altana Pharma, but it is not an advertisement for any drugs or treatments they may be developing.  It actually appears to be a true public service message.

While it is a bit dry, this video really does a good job of reviewing the causes of both asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), which is another respiratory ailment.  It also goes over the symptoms of both and some of the currently available treatment options.

It’s only about 8 minutes long.  Even though it’s dry, it covers a lot of good information that may help you understand asthma and/or COPD, so I highly recommend you give it a chance.

I just found out I have asthma. My problem is that my enhaler I received does not seem to be working. I wake up at least three times in the middle of the night barely breathing, I feal as if I am slowly suffocating. It is so bad at times I almost can not control my bladder. Please Help.

It sounds like you are not appropriately medicated yet. You need more than just a rescue inhaler. (I’m assuming you’re taking Albuterol and not buying Primatene mist from the store. Do NOT use Primatene or any other over the counter asthma remedy).

Waking up 3 times a night is totally unacceptable. Make an appointment with your doctor and tell him/her exactly what is happening. You also need to be prescribed some sort of steroidal such as Flovent or Asthmacort. It is also possible that you have allergy induced asthma (do you have animals in the house) and would benefit from a daily allergy pill such as Singular.

I have been asthmatic all of my life and was in your situation at one point. I just worked with my doctor until we got my prescriptions right. I’m fine now. Just get that appointment scheduled and get to a professional. Asthma attacks should be taken seriously and you should not have to spend one more night like this.

My mother has been suffering from chronic lung problems for about 10 years. A family acquaintance who also has the same lung problems to the extent that she wasn’t able to make her bed without getting extremely winded , apparently she did a Hyperbaric Chamber Therapy Treatment and it helped her so much that she didn’t need assistance with an oxygen tank for 4hrs. My mother needs to be on oxygen day and night as well. Has anyone heard of this type of treatment? I looked at what the Hyperbaric Chamber does for healing, but is there that great of an improvement for someone with chronic lung problems? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Tha answer is, unfortunately, that this is unlikely to offer any benefit, and may cause harm.

People with COPD sometimes require a certain level of carbon dioxide in their blood, to stimulate the respiratory center in the brain. Too much oxygen can depress this drive, and people can become apnoeic (stop breathing).

This is why people on domiciliary oxygen (like your mother) are on low flow oxygen (1-2 L).

The only interventions that have been proven to improve mortality in COPD patients (ie improve survival) is to STOP SMOKING, and low-flow continuous oxygen. Nothing has been shown to heal or reverse COPD.

Unless you are blessed with living in a rather pristine environment you know that a lot of the time you are breathing air that is not so healthy. In fact a lot of the time you breath air that has a bunch of stuff in it. This dust in the air has some rather predictable effects: it irritates the nose and it causes swellling of the nasal passages.

There is a predictable sequence that happens to the head once the nose starts swelling up. First it’s harder to breath through the nose. Then it starts to become easier to breath through the mouth. Finally the person is breathing through the mouth all of the time and then the mouth gets very dry. No fun.

So what is the best solution? Actually it’s rather simple: rinse out the “stuff” that’s in the nose and help the lining of the nose return to normal. The dilemma is this– what do you use to rinse out the nose? Plain water? Medicated sprays? Salt water spray? And if you’re going to use a salt water solution, what kind should you use?Many experts believe that you should use a solution that is not stronger than the salt concentration in your blood stream. Others believe that a stronger salt solution is more effective and the question is not firmly answered. I happen to believe that the stronger solution is more effective in not only irrigating out the secretions but also in decreasing the swelling that is caused by the stuff that’s inhaled into the nose.

I don’t want to make it sound like an emergency to get the junk and dust irrigated out of the nose. The body does have some self cleaning mechanisms after all. However if you’re getting exposed to this unclean air on a regular basis then the body’s systems just won’t work to clean out the junk that is stuck on the surface of the nose.

So it is very important that you have a strategy to get the “stuff” out of the nose if you want to have a healthy nose. If you don’t have a good strategy, I suggest using a home made solution because it not only works well, you have the added benefit of having a solution that doesn’t have preservatives in it.

So why is this important? What difference does it make to use preservatives or not in a nasal saline solution or spray? The biggest reason is that the preservatives are not inert. They actually cause damage and more swelling to the nasal lining! So have a strategy to clean your nasal passages. I suggest making the solution at home to avoid the preservatives. Now that’s a solution!

Looking to find the best solution on nasal saline to find the best advice on saline nasal spray for you.

Can a person be cured of asthma forever and it does not come back to him or to his children?

The tendency to have touchy airways often diminishes during the teenage years and returns again later in life. Asthma does tend to run in families but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we will pass it on. Even a change of climate can relieve or enhance the development of symptoms. So while asthma can seem to disappear during certain periods of your life, it often will reoccur under similar circumstances as when it developed ie; severe respiratory infection, during exercise or when exposed to smoke or chemical irritants.

At first glance it may not be apparent why there would be a connection between a nasal saline solution and asthma. Here is the connection: asthma is aggravated by chronic sinus infections. Sometimes asthma is actually caused by a chronic sinus infection. How does this happen? Well actually we don’t know why this connection exists. But it does. What we do know is that in somebody who has a tendency toward asthma they will have an aggravation of the symptoms of asthma with any type of sinus infection, acute or chronic.

At this point I want to speak a little about the different kinds of sinus infections. The reason for this is because there is actually quite a bit of confusion and I want to describe the different terms. An “acute” infection is one that starts fairly suddenly often during the course of a viral URI. Usually the person is obviously ill, sometimes in pain.

The next category is a “sub-acute” infection. This tends to happen if an acute infection does not heal. This person is starting to get tired of symptoms that are “hanging on”. There is often a lot of coughing both day and night.

A chronic sinus infection is one that has been going on for quite a while. In fact the person with it will often have forgotten their acute infection and assumed they had gotten better. But they have this nagging cough and they have nasal congestion that is not too bad– in fact these folks often think they are dealing with chronic allergies.

So how does a nasal saline solution have anything to do with these various sinus infections? Well first of all the use of a good nasal saline solution will help decrease the symptoms in all three of these types of sinus infections. This is no small thing: being able to decrease symptoms that are bothering a person day and night is a fantastic blessing. The big thing though is that if used correctly and aggressively the nasal saline solution or spray can help keep the acute sinus infection from progressing to a chronic sinus infection.

The common element of the nasal saline is that it is helping to irrigate out secretions that are blocking the sinus openings. It’s also helping to decrease swelling which gives a chance for the sinuses to open up and drain. This all increases the odds that the subacute infection won’t progress to a chronic infection. That means that it is much less likely that asthma will develop. So aggressive use of a good nasal saline solution, particularly without preservatives, can help prevent asthma from developing from a sinus infection.

Learn more about nasal saline. Stop by Stanley Lang’s site where you can find out all about saline nasal spray and what it can do for you.

© COPYRIGHT 2009 Jennifer Trammell

An estimated 12 million Americans are living with food allergies, and the number is growing. Jennifer Trammell takes a look at how the condition impacts one Chicago family, and how research at Northwestern University could be the answer to finding a cure.

Duration : 0:3:43

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